Laws regarding forums...

[talkceltic]

Hey, new here - sorry if this is the wrong forum.

Been having a few problems with a rival forum and I want to know if they have breached any kind of laws with some of the things they have done on our site. Or how to prevent this or even get them back.

- Using a signature containing a photograph of one of our users (without their permission).

- Poaching members on a regular basis and trying to get them over to the rival site.

They flood our site sometimes too and whilst all the threads are deleted, we are pretty sick of it. Is there any way to **** up their forum temporarily or something - we don't want to simply flood them as well. Be too easy.

We're all really pissed off.

[Marco van Herwaarden]

Could you please give a link to the profile of the member on your board and to a thread on this other board so we can see it?

[13th_Disciple]

If that members picture was posted on the internet (an image gallery/website/post-a-pic thread), without copyright notice, it's fair game. Happens all the time. As for you retaliating, not very smart.

Them going after members of another board is not new, either, and there is nothing illegal about asking for people to register at another site unless a gun is being held to head.

[Rocol]

Put the offenders in a special group and deny them permission to have a signature picture .. then have a look at this, if it is suitable for your version of vB .. it may not stop them completely, but they will soon get fed up of trying ;)

Miserable Users (http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?threadid=93258)

[encryption]

Hey, new here - sorry if this is the wrong forum.

Been having a few problems with a rival forum and I want to know if they have breached any kind of laws with some of the things they have done on our site. Or how to prevent this or even get them back.

- Using a signature containing a photograph of one of our users (without their permission).

- Poaching members on a regular basis and trying to get them over to the rival site.

They flood our site sometimes too and whilst all the threads are deleted, we are pretty sick of it. Is there any way to **** up their forum temporarily or something - we don't want to simply flood them as well. Be too easy.

We're all really pissed off.

Time to pull up your admin socks and start banning people imo

[Icheb]

If that members picture was posted on the internet (an image gallery/website/post-a-pic thread), without copyright notice, it's fair game.
That doesn't have anything to do with anything. I don't have to put a sign on my car to say that it's mine, because it's simply mine. The internet doesn't change property laws, what you own is still yours. If someone else is using your stuff, you simply suck it up and live with it or you sue them.

[effectica]

Not many of us have the time and money to go sueing such individuals, especially when we all know that you are most likely going to get nowhere. I agree with what encryption said.
Maybe recruit a few extra moderators to help you and start moderating and banning these people.

Also, if you show no reaction to their provocations (for example you don't get mad and start arguing with them in threads) you'll see that sooner or later they'll give up.

[cnutter]

Get yourself a team of good mods. Install Miserable Users plugin. Start banning people to it this will slow down there attempts to spam your site. Also start banning their ips to the Miserable user group that way they cant just go signing back up as easy with new accounts. Also ban their emails using vb this will cause them to have to sign up for new emails each addies each time and make it a slower process for them to get on your site and do damage. Doing these things along with simply removing any posts they make and ignoring them will cause them to find someone else to bug.

Another option is using a .htaccess file and mod_rewrite if your on a linux/unix server to redirect anyone who comes from their board to a access forbidden page. Though this is fairly easy to get around it can add another hoop they will have to jump in order to mess with you.

You can also use .htaccess to stop linking of any images or files from your site to anyother site on the net. While not fool proof again it add another layer for them to get though to mess with you.

IF you do these things and they are still messing with you I dont know what to tell you.

[Ohiosweetheart]

or upgrade to 3.6 and use the infraction feature to take care of them